It never rains but it...

As I loaded up,the charabanc a fine rain began to fall. Enough to get the auto wipers ticking over, never mind, the cricket was on and I could always sneak a pint in. Realise I'd left the ground bait bowl in the garage so Dangling Indirect first then the pub as it was still marginally damp. Woakes  had chopped on and Broad was in, yesterday's hard work seemingly undone. Pubs are a bit lame in lockdown lite it seems, although the Barshams Oaks was pleasant enough. No scratchings though, not good  enough landlord. 

Broad was motoring and the 300 mark was up as I pulled off down the steep track to the farm pond. Car park empty  and the mizzle had stopped. A warm wind, overcast and the bream were rolling and bubbling as the text books decreed they must. Black Bream mixed and ready to go in my shiny new mixing bowls. A heady sweet concoction.

I balled in 6 jaffas then set about  testing my wafters for waftability in my hi-tech rig tank. And yes,they wafted just above  the #6 hook. Perfick. Down the edge one went with  a small bag of pellet whilst I readied the flat bed mix of spicy sausage and krill.

I'd only just got both flat beds out over the ground bait when the wafter rod was away. A decent scrap ensued, bearing in mind the rod was a 12 ft 3lb tc affair, not a mud pig but the intended tinca, a  long spawned out female at that.

A couple of skimmers on the flat beds and then another smaller tench on the rod down the edge before the expected deluge arrived. 

Hasty covering of tackle and bait and  hiding behind the rosebay willow herb  willing the bobbins to glue themselves to the ground. The deluge was quite fierce but I managed  to escape the worst.

It seemed to spur the fish and sometimes  I had double hook-ups to contend with. Mostly on the yellow peril pineapple but a few on the big busters, once I'd dropped down to a 25 gramme feeder. This hybrid, one of the golden greeny ones really punched above it's weight.

A few skimmers but 6 times the anti reverse  was flicked off as a bream put up at least a token resistance and bent the 1.5 tc Korums nicely against the leaden sky, occasional pierced by a dashing azure  kingfisher streaking past. The average stamp, all about 5 lb or so. 

I was down to the last few dampened pellets in the method bowl and was pondering whether to mix some more when the wafter rod was away again, and no tinca or snottie this one A determined, if not spectacular scrap with several dorsal pings  and one missed netting attempt but eventually in the onion bag and eventually on the Korum digitals, bouncing around 18 lb and settling on a zeroed 17.15. Lovely looking fish, nearly  fully scaled too.

Bit of  a gob shite to be fair...

I'd done my work for the day and besides, I had steak to look forward to.

Broad had made the 3rd fastest Test 50 and West Indies were struggling on 75 for 5 as I reversed down the drive back at BureBoi Villas. Happy days.